MetalRenard's audio Reviews on Newgrounds

[Explore]

While this piece is less well produced than your more recent work, it has a lot going for it. You made a good choice for the synths here, they gel together well and give the piece a certain warmth, forming a wall alongside the bass synth. This caries the song.
At times there is a lead melody and I've always had a thing for wide, wide arps. I always associate them with sci-fi and I'm obssessed with that type of atmosphere.

I think you could have made this song more catchy at times, maybe by bringing in a strong lead melody to give the song more direction or a stronger sense of structure with a more obvious chorus section.

TimerClock14 responds:

Hey thanks for the comments! This song definitely gave me a lot of trouble in the mix department as you can hear. I'm also right there with you on your criticism of lacking a catchy lead. While I dont think that all songs need a catchy lead I think this is definitely a song that could have benefited greatly from one and a bit more traditional composition overall to accommodate.

Really appreciate these comments and I'll put the feedback towards making my next song even better!

[The Monolith]

The simplicity of this piece works in its favour when you consider its purpose. I enjoyed the lack of instruments at times. It's well produced and the atmosphere comes across well. The sound design was definitely a highlight of this track.

However you must be wary - this type of music can often come across as "background" music and in a competition people are looking for the "full package", a piece of music you can listen to on its own. This might not have been a suitable submission and may explain why you didn't do as well as you might have hoped. Food for thought?

TimerClock14 responds:

You make a good point here. I need to consider the setting and demographic of competitions when I enter and the fact that this is a darker more minimalist work most likely did work against me. In hindsight I realize that the target demographic for this style of song is too narrow for the scope of this competition and would have likely been better off submitting something more traditional, especially for the auditions.

[endK - Space Lasagna]

Oooh yeah so tasty.
Super interesting throughout, well produced, you really knocked this one out of the park. Congrats!

endKmusic responds:

Yay!
Thanks man, really glad you dig it.
:)

[Do You Just Space]

Right from the get-go I noticed clipping caused by how loud your piece is. Please, if you don't know how, do not mix your track this loudly. The loudness war is over, you don't (and can't) compete with million dollar studios on that level so don't bother, be BETTER than them, give your song more dynamic range!

I really liked the synths in this, how they ebbed and flowed round the chords in the background. The drums are mixed well to fit the rest and nothing sounds out of place.
This track has a great "vibe" to it which is never lost but evolves in a satisfying way throughout. At times, when you drop an instrument out I immediately miss that instrument and the piece makes me yearn for it (which is good) and then when it returns I feel happy.
However, by the 2 minute mark I'm starting to get a little stir crazy and looking for something new to add. You would have scored higher if you'd added a little something that reinvigorated my attention.

Honestly, the composition and sound design is good but you need to sort out that loudness.

BeeFef responds:

First of all, there shouldn't be any clipping because it peaks at 0db. I think you're hearing the saturation I put on the chords at the beginning, which I think I overdid.

I'm glad you liked the the sound design and the composition. After a certain amount of time I kinda get stuck on composition because it gets harder for me to add new stuff, so there's something I could work on.

But yeah, hope I make it in next time, thanks

[Universal Macrocosm]

I enjoyed the introduction, your choice of chords is warm and welcoming, introducing the feel of the rest of the piece well. The harp is a bit shocking and breaks my immersion a bit.

Something with a slower attack might have worked better, such as another violin or something.

I enjoy the energy of the next section. The momentum pulls you along. The bass works well to anchor the realistic instruments to the more electronic ones.

Around 1:38 it gets a bit busy and the piece loses focus. It's also quite muddy here. Whenever something is muddy I always suggest the person switch their master bus to mono and adjust the EQ as it makes mud much more apparent.

The composition kept me interested throughout and reminds me of some classic NG tracks (in a good way). The song ends in a satisfactory manner but could have maybe sign-posted it was about to end more.

I noticed your song isn't making use of the stereo spectrum very much. Try panning more L/R and using mid/side mixing to widen it.

death2go responds:

so sorry for the late response! i dont know how i missed this!
thanks for the suggestions! ive been unsure how to go with being expansive with the stereo spectrum, ill try to aim on using that more! the harp now that im rehearing it does seem out of place compared to other things in the beginning. and ill try to fix the mess in 1:38 as well, sounds a bit muddy i believe.

suprised that you didnt point out the single instrument that held out at 2:15, which TBF i never could find the cause of it

thanks again for the review! i appreciate the time you took for this!

[Fill in between(remast)]

I love the feel of this one. I wish I could hear each part more (it's totally mono?) but the ideas are cool and I love the dissonance.

HighBallers responds:

im gonna totally redo this song with some new plug-ins and see if I can bring this song more to life.

[Mordiggian Redux]

Ermagawd what a treat! I've had this on my phone for years and I still listen sometimes. Definitely a massive upgrade. It's awesome to revisit old things to compare and see the progress you've made.
So tell us the story... What were the biggest shockers when you re-opened the old project? The biggest mistake you originally made that you now cringe at. :3

JDawg00100 responds:

Man to be honest I really wish I had the old project file to look at. Back when I made it originally I just kind of threw it all together and wasn't even too impressed by it. But a lot of the vibes and sounds I got before were completely lost to me. So not only did I have to relearn the song but I had to figure out what all made it the way it was before. So it actually took me twice as long to rerecord it than to write and record it back in the day. It's kinda crazy. One thing that I really had to take a second take on was some of drums and lead guitar work. They are really things I don't do anymore, so it was a little difficult to get that muscle memory back for some of the licks I used to use. If there is anything that I really wasn't too happy with on the original was the quality, I've thought I could do better for years now but I just now decided to give it a go. Anyways thanks for the review :D

[Refract]

You nailed the production on this. It's so full and artfully produced to bring out the best in each element. I recognise some of these samples from your previous work, including one of the NGADM songs you submitted a few years back. ^_^
Awesome as always!!! Just what I expect from you.

garlagan responds:

long time no see!
oh maybe it was Deflect? it's similar to that one, hence the name :p
thank you MR!!